1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to field of voice messaging systems for Private Branch Exchange (PBX) telephone systems.
2. Prior Art
A Private Branch Exchange (PBX) may be defined as a telephone exchange system serving an organization, which may be coupled with multiple incoming and outgoing trunk lines and multiple telephone sets at the organization's premises PBX systems provide a variety of functions such as switching of calls from the incoming trunk lines to any of the extensions, switching calls between two extensions and switching calls between extensions and outgoing trunk lines. Numerous PBX systems are well-known and commercially available.
Telephones at the organization's premises may be conventional single line phones (2500 sets) or they may be other, more advanced, telephone sets. For example, a PBX may have provisions for the connection of electronic telephone sets with multiple line capability, display capability, and other advanced features. Such telephones are often referred to as "feature phones". Some PBX systems allow extension numbers which are assigned to individual telephone sets to be assigned also to the multiple line appearances on such a feature phone remote pickup. This capability allows the feature phone to share access to those extension numbers with individual single line telephones.
When an incoming call is directed, by the PBX, to one of those extension numbers, it may be answered by either the feature phone or by the single line telephone set. Often, the PBX provides information about the call to the display of the feature phone. This information may include information regarding the source of the call (a trunk number, a trunk group number, calling party identification information supplied by the telephone network, or a PBX extension number). Further, for calls which have been forwarded to the feature phone from an unanswered extension, additional information is often provided such as the extension number which the call was forwarded from and the reason the call was forwarded (extension was busy, no answer after a predetermined number of rings, extension had been manually forwarded, etc.).
As an alternative to allowing extension numbers assigned to individual telephones to be simultaneously assigned to a feature phone, some known PBX systems allow a single line to utilize a remote pickup feature to gain access to a call to one of the extension numbers assigned to a feature phone.
As an additional feature, some PBX systems provide a facility for allowing a feature phone to receive call information without requiring the feature phone to answer the call.
A number of voice messaging systems are known in the art and are commercially available which may be coupled with a PBX and used to automate the answering of incoming calls from the outside telephone network and the taking of messages when the extensions are not answered by the called parties. Such voice messaging systems incorporate features such as the recording of voice messages for users in what are known as user's "mailboxes". Such voice messaging systems may be accessed by users calling from PBX extensions or from the telephone network over incoming trunks.
In most known voice messaging systems, answering of incoming trunk calls by the voice messaging system is accomplished by instructing the PBX to direct the incoming calls to a group of extensions. Voice ports of the voice messaging system are coupled with this group of extensions and appear to the PBX simply as single line telephone sets. Typically, the voice messaging system will answer a call directed to it and provide a pre-recorded voice message asking the caller to enter the extension number he wishes to be connected to. Depending on the specific voice messaging system, there may be other choices given to the caller at this time, such as the option of being transferred to the PBX attendant.
In most known systems, the voice messaging system has no information on the source of the call. Such information would allow the voice messaging system to tailor the handling of the call. For example, it is desired for the voice messaging system to select a specific pre-recorded voice message based on the source of the incoming call. Further, it is desired for the voice messaging system to provide tailored caller options based on the source of the incoming call. For the voice messaging system to provide such features, it is necessary to provide the voice messaging system with information on the source of the incoming call including, for example, the trunk number, the trunk group number, or other calling party identification information which may be supplied by the network.
One known method of providing such features is to divide the voice ports of the voice messaging system into groups and to configure the PBX to direct incoming calls from certain trunks or trunk groups to specific groups of voice ports. The voice messaging system may then be tailored to handle calls differently on different voice port groups. Such a method has the disadvantage of requiring a larger number of voice ports then may be required if the voice ports were not grouped. A more efficient use of ports would result if the ports could be pooled in one group and shared for the handling of incoming calls from all trunks.
It is therefore desired to provide a method and apparatus for allowing a voice messaging system to receive information regarding the source of calls which are sent by the PBX to the voice messaging system's voice ports and to allow the voice messaging system to tailor the processing of calls based on such information, cost and compatibility.
In addition to handling calls received by the PBX from incoming telephone trunks, an important function of known voice messaging systems is the handling of calls which do not successfully reach the originally intended extension (the extension was busy, did not answer or had been intentionally placed in a mode in which it was not accepting calls). Such a function may be accomplished in known voice messaging systems by instructing the PBX to forward all such unanswered calls to a group of extensions coupled with the voice ports of the voice messaging system. The voice messaging system may then answer the uncompleted calls and process them. Depending on the specific voice messaging system, the caller may be allowed to leave a voice message, call another extension, or perform some other action.
In the processing of such uncompleted calls by the voice messaging system, it is useful to know the extension number which the caller was originally calling. Such information allows the voice messaging system to provide prerecorded information pertaining to the originally called extension number and allows the voice messaging system to tailor the choices it gives the calling party for further handling of the information. In known voice messaging systems, such a function is often accomplished by providing a prerecorded voice message which prompts the caller with a message such as "You have reached the ABC company message center, please reenter the extension number you were trying to reach". In such a system, if a caller has a touch-tone phone, he may enter the extension number he is attempting to reach, and the voice messaging system may tailor the handling of the call based on the extension number.
There are several problems with this method. First, in many cases, the caller has already dialed the extension number once when the call was originally placed. It is inconvenient to require a caller to reenter the extension number. Second, a caller may be calling from a rotary-dial telephone. In known voice messaging systems, the voice messaging system is unable to receive instructions dialed from a rotary dial telephone. Third, in some cases a caller may not know the extension of the person he was trying to call. Typically, this is the case when a call was initially answered by a PBX attendant and the caller asked to be connected to a specific individual by name.
One known method and apparatus for solving the above problems is to utilize software and an interface apparatus which may be provided by a PBX manufacturer which is intended to provide calling and called party information to a voice messaging or voice messaging system. Such hardware and software is available only from a few PBX manufacturers and often may add significant cost to the telephone switching system.
A second known method and apparatus is utilized by OCTEL COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION of Milpitas, Calif. in some models of their voice messaging products. As the applicant currently understands the OCTEL system, the feature phone capabilities of many known PBX systems are utilized. The voice messaging system is configured to be coupled with the PBX through a plurality of feature phone ports. The PBX is configured to direct calls, which may be either directly dialed or may be forwarded to one of the plurality of feature phones coupled with the voice messaging system. The voice messaging system may then receive call information regarding a call over one of the feature phone interfaces and may process the call in accordance with the information.
It is desired to develop a system which utilizes the information available from known PBX systems over the feature phone interface without requiring use of a plurality of feature phone ports.
In a third known method and apparatus, a PBX may be programmed to outpulse call history information for a forwarded call to the voice messaging system at the time of the forwarding of a call by using in-band Dual Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) signalling. Such a feature is only available on a limited number of known PBXs.
It is therefore desirable to provide a method and apparatus which allows a voice messaging system to receive information from a PBX regarding the called and calling number when a call is transferred to it and information regarding the reason the call was forwarded.
After the voice messaging system receives information regarding the called and calling number and information regarding the reason the call was forwarded to the voice messaging system, through one of the above-mentioned methods or otherwise, the voice messaging system then processes the call.
Known voice messaging systems do not differentiate such messages based on time-of-day and day-of-week. Further, typical voice messaging systems provide the caller with an opportunity to leave a message for the desired party in a mailbox or to be transferred to another extension for handling of such calls by dialing an extension number. In known systems, the caller is automatically allowed to leave a message in the called party's mailbox but the caller must enter an extension number or provide some other indication if the caller desires to transfer to an alternate extension.
It is an object of the present invention to develop a system which will be more responsive to a caller's needs by allowing the processing of calls to be customized based on the time-of-day, day-of-week, etc.
It is still further an objective of the present invention to provide a system which will allow an extension to be configured to automatically transfer a caller to a second designated extension if the caller does not enter a code for accessing a mailbox when the call is unanswered by the desired extension.
Known voice messaging systems further provide a number of facilities to mailbox users. Such phone systems require users to go through a number of steps to log into the desired mailbox before allowing a caller access to the mailbox facilities. One known voice messaging system manufactured by Rolm Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. expedites the log in process in some instances by not requiring a mailbox user to enter his/her own extension. However, if a security code has been set on the mailbox then the user must enter security information in order to gain access to any of the mailbox facilities.
It is desired to provide access to certain facilities of a mailbox with a minimum number of steps required of the mailbox user. It is desirable to allow this special access only to certain users of the system and only during certain time-of-day and day-of-week periods.